Olivia Rodrigo’s Rupp Arena concert a jolt of youthful spirit with a surprise guest

Ah, youth – a time of seemingly limitless spirit and energy. If you’re around it, you can’t help being taken by its infectious drive. If you’re living it, well, you’re setting the world on fire.

The latter is pretty much what Olivia Rodrigo did Wednesday evening at Rupp Arena. As a parting shot for the sold-out crowd that cheered the show on from first note to last, the 21-year-old star song stylist, along with eight of her mighty gal pal dancers, crowded onto a platform with a plexiglass top that allowed them to look down so their boundlessly spirited mugs could be beamed onto a billboard-sized video screen. All this unfolded as Rodrigo wrapped up the concert with the youthful gusto of her 2023 hit “Get Him Back!,” one of the cheeriest revenge songs to likely cross your ears.

The just-shy-of-two-hour performance repurposed the stereotypical matrix of the post-teen pop star with a program that, at various times, took a trip to the moon, encouraged a little love for mom and dad and, in honor of Rodrigo’s Kentucky stage debut, offered a surprise appearance by one of the Commonwealth’s finest.

The most arresting aspect to the performance centered around what it wasn’t. Many young artists with high commercial profiles present concerts essentially as dance shows, a physical but often robotic display of athleticism that places live music on the back burner. As mentioned, Rodrigo had a dance troupe, too. But the eight-member team largely operated independently of the singer, leaving Rodrigo the means to tear across the stage and focus on songs the audience knew every last word to, from the galloping sing-along that grew out of “Vampire” to the acoustic duet revision of “Happier” and “Favorite Crime” with guitarist Daisy Spencer to the big beat pop charge of “So American.”

There was plenty of integration between the singer and the dancers, but it never dissolved into standard music video symmetry. Case in point: “Lacy,” where the dancers surrounded Rodrigo on a circular platform so that everyone could be shot for the video screen by an overhead camera. The result was a performance less derivative of modern pop fanfare and more respectfully reminiscent of a vintage Esther Williams water ballet.

There were a few other visual trappings, too – like a crescent moon-shaped swing that carted Rodrigo around the arena during “Logical” and “Enough for You.” That exercise embellished the unexpected dichotomy within the concert. Rodrigo unapologetically dropped F-bombs to the point where they became a commonality of her musical and stage vernacular. But at the other extreme was a between-song chat where the singer asked how many patrons were attending the show with their parents, prompting a request for all family members to hug each other. Call me a sentimentalist (or just old), but the moment was quite moving.

Kentucky’s Tyler Childers makes surprise appearance

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” the singer told the crowd slyly as the performance headed into the homestretch. And she did, too – a huge one. Out walked champion Kentucky songsmith Tyler Childers, who played two sold-out shows of his own at Rupp in December. He offered his hit 2019 slice of country-folk romanticism, “All Your’n,” as a merry duet for himself and Rodrigo. It was joyous, wonderfully impromptu and quick. After the song’s four-minute run, Childers was gone. Still, a wonderful cameo.

The song’s country airs and the quieter strain of Rodrigo’s more introspective ballads were brief deviations, though, from a performance that was very much a rock ‘n’ roll show. This presented another variance from how live performances often play out for younger, commercially visible pop performers. Both the show-opening “Bad Idea, Right?” and the set-closing “All-American Bitch” (the first two songs from her 2023 sophomore album “Guts”) typified a muscular and very electric guitar driven charge that mirrored the attitude of Rodrigo’s more assertive compositions.

That every performer onstage, from the headliner to the band to the dancers, were women simply added to the concert’s distinctive energy, a performance that was less a display of post-teen pop product and more an honest, restorative jolt of youthful musical spirit.

This story was originally published July 25, 2024 at 7:23 AM.